Popular Teaware from Camellia Sinensis

Recent Tasting Notes

Steeped 8gm in 240ml yixing as recommended. Ist two steeps did not show me anything from the roasting. The gardenia, honeysuckle aromas and flavors are present, the grassiness is subdued. The liqour color is a golden yellow with a smidgen of brown. Steeps 3-5 had more structure with the artichoke vegetal notes coming in to play. Still not tasting the roast which I think is OK, maybe I’m not supposed to. I just wanted the roasting to concentrate those TGY traits I love so much a little more.

Preparation

Another delicious black from dexter! operation get under 200 this weekend so i can make a teeny, tiny purchase is in effect! lol. I ended up drinking this one without really stopping to focus on it while doing this dishes this morning. What i can say is that this is somewhere between a fruity tea and a malty tea. It’s got a bit of both happening, though not overwhelmingly so. I really need to place an order with this company soonish…

This was another interesting tea from Dexter. I don’t quite know how to describe it. I would order this again to try it, and i’m sending on a bit to my tea sister terri so that she can try it. I like that it’s rolled like oolongs typically are. The taste isn’t super bold, but there’s enough going on here that i am enjoying the cups i’ve had (it resteeps nicely).
Thanks for sharing some interesting teas with me dexter!

Was in a rush to get out the door this morning so I tried this tea thinking it would be a straight forward red tea and I would like it and go to work. Wrong. I used my Teavana large perfecta tea maker with 1 tbs tea to 16 oz water. The dry leaf has a slight pekoe smell. I poured in the water and saw the most beautiful red fawn color. The aromas had some fruitiness and also a very faint hint of kimchi, thats right kimchi. I make kimchi at home and yes it can get a bit boisterous but it also has this gentle sweetness from the chile flakes in it that I recognized in its bouquet. The steeping took all of 15 seconds, with flavors of apricot, pâte sucrée and bit of malt. Smooth very smooth, nothing screamed at you. I consumed my two cups in a hurry and brewed another, this time 20 seconds to get that same color. Just as good, I ran out of hot water and time at that point so see you tomorrow Uva Amba.

Preparation

My second tasting and as I remembered the smells of this tea set your mind a spinning. I only had 3g left and used my smallest gaiwan with very little water. The aromas are equally represented in the flavors as well. Tons of flowers, hints of ground ginger and a bit of bitterness which oddly adds to the flavor profile. Subsequent steeps and a sweetness emerges along with that bracing bitter which is a kin to licking slate, all along with that sumptuous flower. There is also a great punch of energy that needs to be exploited with my day off today. May this single tree last many more centuries.

Preparation

My first Gong Fu tasting with all the pieces together. My husband graced me by joining and providing some interesting points. The tea has a nice matted hair appearance with leaves sticking out as if to escape the pod and a dry leaf aroma of prune. Used 7g in 240 yixing.

1st steep – wet leaf aroma of some sweet flower couldn’t tell which one. Flavors of a perfume and a slight aftertaste of slate. I guess this is the rock I see in other tastings.

2nd steep – added 5 sec. Leaf aroma is now definitely gardenia. The taste of the flower is also now present in the soup with the rock holding steady but the flavor is of wet rock not dry.

3rd steep – added 5 sec. Leaf aroma is now a bouquet of gardenia. What an impressive scent. It couldn’t come from an atomizer any stronger. The rock appears again after the florals have dissipated. I might mention that the floral notes do not stick around as long as I would like they are so intoxicating. The best steep.

4th-6th steep and the wet leaf aromas start to fade but gradually, but the florals in the soup drop off rather quickly. There also is now a sweetness in the aftertaste I wished was there in the 3rd steep. Rock flavor has softened too. A heavier mouth feel compared to earlier steeps is noted.

A nice tea. I can say that I enjoyed the aromas better than the tea itself, but this is my first time brewing this tea and I’ve read that it is difficult to get straight the first time. I think I should either brew in a smaller gaiwan or use more leaf 10g but that is a lot of tea for two. A lower temp, say 180F/82C, I think would be gentler to the leaf. One question in regard to Gong Fu preparation. When you are pouring into the yixing does it matter if its clockwise or counter clockwise. Tradition is everything when brewing these fantastic teas for me.

Preparation

I wish this Pu Erh would also be a perfume… The liquor has an amazing arrange bright color and the smell out of the tea pot is strong masculine made of leather and camphor oil and slightly floral. No astringency in the liquor and an amazing journey through the 8+ steeps. It is going interesting to see its evolution through the year!

This is a sweet and lightly nutty tea with a unique look and lots of flavor. I brewed this one in a tall glass to accentuate the leaves. I used 2 grams of the leaves with 160-165 F water poured over them, steeping for 3 minutes. I did three infusions thus far. It could likely go for more.

A nice mellow cup for a Saturday afternoon. I’m going back to my usual position of preferring straight whites to flavoured, but I think it’s mostly because flavoured blends have broken bits of leaves instead of full leaves.

I generally don’t care for flavoured whites and greens (or so I thought), but this tea is an exception. Smells sweet, fruity, and, yes, like a happy song. Really nice summer drink. Can’t wait to try it iced!

Preparation

Flavourful, sweet, woodsy and creamy. Not to overpowering or bitter either.

I found that with a bit too much time or leaves it’s too bold, but it’s really wonderful when I get it just right. Comparing this to the Thurbo Dj-19 I just had from CS, it’s a stronger flavour but still overall a balanced tea.

Preparation

This was really smooth and not sharp/bitter at all. Along with the typical notes I expect (woodsy, peppery), I never felt like the flavours overpowered my taste buds.

Overall I enjoyed the tea, but Darjeelings are not something I usually purchase so I’ll reserve rating this for now. But compared to some others I’ve tried, this seemed really subtle and balanced at the same time.

Preparation

Received my package this morning containing the pu-erh and Okakura Kakuzō book of tea which was a good thing with a temp of -42 Celsius with the wind a tea and a book was in order to unfreeze me.

Don’t know much ( for not saying nothing at all ) about Pu-erh but for some reason i keep getting the impulsion to try them. Did choose that one totally randomly liked the name or the picture i don’t really remember. Always found that most Pu’erh smell like stable but not in a bad way a aroma more like horse and fesh hay ( maybe i’m just weird ).

no instruction was giving to make it gongfu style so i kinda have to improvised on that one but that part of the fun of tea to try new thing to taste it.

I did the first steep 15 second that was noway enough time the tea as a beautiful color but nearly no taste

Second steep was 30 second the tea is way more dark now nearly as dark as coffee little earthly taste with lot of astringency ( but really a lot )

try the third at 30 second also the taste and the felling was much like the second steep

since they suggest 4-5 minute steep in a western steeping style ( that the way i will do it next time ) i did the last steep at 45 second no more astringency this time but still just a hint of earthly taste i may did something wrong i will make my next tasting according to the instruction they give to me to compare the taste of the two method but for now my head is way to light to read my book or drink more tea

Preparation

A friend ordered several ceramic storage vessels and two yixing (one of which was the one she gave to me) from Camellia Sinensis and they included a sample of this tea with her order.

I am out of practice with Chinese green teas…

The cup was pale yellow and had a gentle roasted note amongst all the fresh, green flavors. None of the deep, bass note green flavors one finds in a shaded tea or a dragon well, but gentle, sunny meadow flavors.

It is, I think, sadly, the wrong time of year, even in Houston, for this kind of cup. I could see this being a fantastic way to wake up in Spring, however, which is when this tea is first harvested.

Preparation

I am working my way through this leaf much faster than I intended, but I am enjoying it so much I simply cannot help but keep drinking it.

If I have any complaint it is that it gives up far too few steeps. Despite my yixing’s young age, with each day’s use my other teas provide more and more steeps with each round, and yet this leaf still struggles to make a full ten — let alone reach for fifteen or more as great pu-erh often does.

I can’t help but wonder if such old leaf requires an old yixing to support it.

I suspect I need to content myself with younger leaf until my pot has become venerable enough to be worthy of such a tea as this.

At least it will be easier on the wallet in the meantime…

Preparation

I think I’ll try this one next time. Lukily, they have a shop close to where I live. I’m enjoying the 2006 Macau Scenery (also a shou) I bought a couple of weeks ago, but I’m eager to try an older shou.

I had a full session of steepings with this tea yesterday, and I’m beginning another of them now.

The sweet, chocolate of the dry leaf is a shock and pleasant surprise every time I open the tin.

Even more surprising is how this sweet leaf instantly transforms into a musty, loamy, verdant forest floor as soon as it hydrates. My yixing right now smells like Dogtown Wood (outside Gloucester) Massachusetts in early November.

No surprise then that the cup itself mystically fuses the two. Porcini ravioli followed by cannoli with chocolate shavings. A walk through wet Autumnal leaves with a mug of cocoa. Debussy on a cloudy day.

Preparation

After many steepings, the granite and aged protein give way to… not a sweetness, but something more gentle. The dust and stones are shaken off and the full, bright, soft color of the big, red robe shines through.

Preparation

Second steeping: This one’s a bit thin on flavor, probably because the leaf got cold while I was having my Mini serviced and throwing 21 links of disc golf. And yet, the mouth feel is enormous.

Third steeping: This is more like it. Deep umber color. In a funny way, this is (perhaps not unexpectedly) the exact opposite of the pre-chingming da hong pao I was getting from Upton just a few months ago. That was light and floral, this is dark and earthy. Quite literally. This tastes like wet granite and venison hard tack.

This is a cold weather tea. By which I don’t mean Winter in Houston. Perhaps I will pack this into an unlaquered bamboo canister for more aging and save it either to gift to a Northern friend or for the next time I visit my parents.

First steep: I just woke up, and have to rush out the door, but couldn’t wait any longer, after staring at this box all yesterday afternoon (but having already begun that session with the last of the quhao which lasted all day). I confess I can’t actually taste much of anything at the moment. But that’s my body, not this tea. So I’ll edit this note with later steepings… later. For now I can say that this is not simply da hong pao. There’s a bitterness, a dryness, a mineral quality you don’t find in this season’s leaf.